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Being a tourist

You’ll find a myriad of activities to do here. Prawning (sitting around little man-made ponds fishing for prawns), eating, or just strolling around the entire area, made known by the famous Bottle tree and other exotic plants imported from Australia reportedly worth more than a whooping $100,000.

Dinner was a mouthwatering spread of seafood. Despite cries of “too much!!” we wiped out pretty much everything, including those calorific fried mantous. Although hailed to be a uniquely Singaporean dish, I rarely eat Chilli crabs. In fact, I had more of pepper crabs as compared to chilli crabs, which I’ve eaten maybe twice or thrice in my life? The rendition here is pretty good: sweet, salty, a weak punch of spiciness, and just the right amount of acidity that urges you reach for another mantou to wipe up the sauce. But the most memorable would be those steamed baby lobsters. A must-try!

Though it was running late the parents insisted that the relatives had to visit the Night Safari. The great thing is this place opens till 12.30 at night. So If you are trying to squeeze lots of things in your itinerary, this is one place you can go to fully maximise your time. Do note however, that tram rides end at 11. 15pm thereabouts ( but they have extra trams coming to make sure everyone leaves the first stop, no worries). It was quite an adventure, walking around the trails in darkness (okay I exaggerate, it’s dim not totally dark).

The funniest part was when we (together with a group of other tourists) shrieked because a giant flying squirrel flew overhead. Dad was quite disappointed to have missed the commotion because he walked faster than the rest of us ;)

Oops, i realise i got the name confused. The one I went to was Bottle Tree Park Seafood Restaurant in Bottle Tree Park, Yishun. Apparently they just relocated in april this year (just read abt it in their website), from bottle tree village in Sembawang.

We ordered seafood all the way, and everything was very fresh, and well-cooked. The steamed baby lobsters were a real delight, and I was quite surprised at how succulent the flesh was. We also enjoyed the black pepper crabs because of its fiery kick, and the chilli crabs, though I would say the sauce is pretty mild as compared to the former. Another dish well done was the fried calamari. The calamari rings were thick, and cooked to the right doneness, not chewy at all. The braised sea cucumber, sharksfin, and kang kong were probably the more forgettable dishes of the meal. All in all we were pretty pleased. What did you have there that wasn’t good?

Can’t rmb the name. As I went there when this place got started, should be at least 3 years ago or even more.

Can’t recall much. But 1 dish particularly stuck to my mind which was the claypot tofu was just 1 long lump of tofu that was not even sliced. in it there was prawns, mushrooms. Felt that even coffee shop’s claypot tofu was better. Also, plain warm water was 50cents, during that time it was unheard. Their prices were expensive and staff were impatient despite there being 2 other tables occupied. And after tt, we never went back again. If i rmb correctly, 7 person, it cost close to $400. We did not order expensive items such as crabs/lobster/sharkfins.

From your post,sounds like the restaurant have changed hands. Glad you did not have the same experience.

Because most of the items were charged by weight, my uncle actually arranged a price-cap with them before he ordered. In fact he pre-ordered all the dishes before we came so everything ran very smoothly.